Hendrik Lorentz ‘Speed of Sound’

Subscription or purchase?

Production of this watch is started latest after the subscription period which ends March1 2023.

Why subscription?

By using a subscription model and partial pre-payment the price of this watch can be very reasonable, while not fidgeting with quality (check “quality” below) .

Why register?

By using a registration and partial payment in advance, the price can remain reasonable while quality is not compromised (see quality).

Will production really only start March 1?

The first production batch will be in Januari, due to the number of orders already placed. When again sufficient orders are placed more chronographs will be produced straight away. That is how this goes.

What is the production amount? Is this a limited edition?

The production amount of this model (at this price) is 100 piece maximum. It is not nescessarily a limited edition, but I am quite sure that a second series will be different at least in details. It will probably be marked as series 2 (or MK2).

Quality

There is no cutting corners in this department! The movement is the trusted ETA7750, regulated by yours truly. Sapphire front and back. The front crystal is curved and anti reflection coated (heavy duty version, scratch resistant). Water resistancy is 5ATM (but designed and tested to 10 ATM). The subdials are lowered for more depth (by milling). Now we are on it: the complete dial is machined from a solid block of aluminium. So there is actually “cotes de Geneva” on the back of the dial. Not that you can see it, but it is there.

Design details:

The minute hand is clearly shorter than the chrono seconds hand. By this the chronograph can always be read without obstructions.
With chronograph watches there is always the struggle between reading time as a watch and the stopwatch function. Both demand their space but they should not clutter-up each other. Therefore a constant seconds subdial is not present: is it for time or for chronograph? The dial is busy enough already!

Novelty!

The chronograph seconds hand has indexes for 1/2 and 1/4 seconds. By this feature reading all 1/8 seconds steps is much easier.
Interestingly, this is the only mechanical chronograph with this feature!
Mechanical chronographs are most practical with plenty of everyday activities, even though smartphones are always close. Reading a mechanical chrono below 1 second was always tricky, even with the legends of the big brands. It took 100 years, but now we have a nice solution!

Hour counter

The hours counter has indexes for each half hour; this matches the minute counters 30 minute scale. It is really more handy that the hour counter passes an index when the minute counter hits 30.

Crosshair

The characteristic Pellikaan crosshair is present again! The presence of the crosshair is emphasized by the slightly fatter indexes at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock. We know the crosshair from the snipers scope, submarine periscope and also from the many “sectordial” watches. A crosshair eases orientation on a dial. Yes they add 2 lines, but they do not add clutter.

Light in the dark

The watch functions are readable in the dark.
In the old days this was accomplished using radium paint. Marie Curie once discovered that you could see radium with your eyes closed. Her work yield 2 Nobelprizes, but not a good health! Here Super-Luminova (RC Tritec) is used: luminous, but not radioactive (I checked for myself with a Geiger-Muller counter).

Military signature

At 12 we see the two dots we know so well from military watches. No confusion about 12:00.
These dots were also in the design for pilots watches of the British Ministry Of Defense (MOD) of 1944-1945. These yielded the “dirty dozen” watches, produced by 12 watch brands using the same design and requirements. (IWC, Omega, Longines, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Timor, Grana, Buren, Eterna, Lemania, Cyma, Record en Vertex UK check out https://www.watching.nl/artikelen/the-dirty-dozen/)

Want to see the Speed Of Sound chronograph in real life?

Make an appointment at Pellikaan timing, live or via ZOOM. Or visit Juwelier Punte in Utrecht. Make an appointment via the Pellikaan timing contact page or send a Whatsapp to 0624776584.